Beef cattle pregnancy testing

Have you age pregnancy tested your beef herd? There are many advantages to this over the standard wet/dry information.  This is where we estimate a calving date for each cow +/- 7 days

The benefits of dating beef cattle pregnancies allow you to:

• Monitor cows closer at calving. This is especially true with heifers and studs recording calves on the drop.
• Calculate a conception rate to each cycle and monitor the efficiency of cow cycling and bull activity.
• Winter later cows differently.
• Sell 3rd cycle/late calving cows or these can be the first to go if required.
• Identify bull sub-fertility. This can be detected if there are different conception rates after bulls have been swapped. Suspect bulls can be serviced tested or culled.

If you have more dry cows than normal but have not aged pregnancy tested, you have missed a big opportunity to get to the cause of the problem. Foetal aging is a key to diagnosing beef repro performance and vital to implementing change that ensures better results.

“…There were real benefits with grazing management and we’ll definitely do it again next year”.

Recording of the aged data can be as simple as a spray dot on the back. Some put a sheep tag in the ear of 3rd cycle cows, or we can record tag/EID with the pregnancy status data.

In order to get accurate data, foetal aging is best done 6-8 weeks post bull removal.

For more information get in touch with your local Veterinary Centre:

Oamaru Phone: (03) 434 5666  Send Email
Waimate Phone: (03) 689 7213  Send Email
Glenavy Phone: (03) 465 1291  Send Email
Omarama Phone: (03) 438 9868  Send Email
Kurow Phone: (03) 436 0567  Send Email
Ranfurly Phone: (03) 444 1020  Send Email